The LHC conducted its first collisions, pictured here, in 2009. It plans to operate at low power in 2010 and 2011 and then undergo an upgrade before leaping directly to full power. (Source: CERN)

The LHC cost over $9B USD to complete, but promises to unlock some of the universe's most compelling mysteries. (Source: CERN)

Full power collisions will begin in 2013 -- after upgrade

September
of 2008 was set to be a landmark year for the physics community.
The Large Hadron Collider, a massive 17-mile-long track beneath the
Franco-Swiss border was coming online and promised to at last allow
physicists to glimpse the long theorized, but never observed Higgs
boson, nicknamed the "God particle".

However, a
malfunction killed
those hopes, pushing the launch back to 2009. A cold winter
slowed repairs and it was August 2009 when the repairs finally
wrapped up. In November the collider was brought back
online at last. Within days it recorded its first
collisions and before long set a new
world record -- despite operating at a mere fraction of its
prospective power.

Amid a winter shutdown, researchers are now
planning their next move, even as they sift through a wealth of data
collected from the initial collisions. This week they laid out
an ambitious
plan for the collider.

In 2010 and 2011 they plan to
operate the collider at 3.5 TeV per beam, much more than 1.18 TeV per
beam recorded in November, and significantly more than the previous
record holder, the U.S.-based
Fermilab, which has achieved 1 TeV beams. To put these
numbers in context, a mosquito has about 1 TeV in kinetic
energy -- but it has 1023 to
1024 atoms
in them, many with dozens of protons. The LHC is packing all
this energy into a single proton -- a feat akin to packing all
the people in the world into a square smaller than the tiniest
transistor.

According to the LHC road map, the collider will
shut down in 2012, skipping "mid-range" collisions of
around 5 TeV per beam. Instead, it will receive a circuitry
upgrade to help it handle its peak designed power -- 7 TeV per beam.
In 2013 it will begin collisions at a record combined energy of about
14 TeV -- about 14 mosquitoes per proton pair, in layman's
terms.

Until the LHC achieves peak power in 2013, FermiLab
still has a chance to beat it and be the first to observe the Higgs
boson. However, if the particle is less lightweight, it will
likely not be observed until the LHC cranks up the juice.

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